Halla Tomasdottir is the executive director and co-founder of Audur capital - the
only financial company left in Iceland currently recruiting staff. They
set up in 2007, recruiting women, and committed to invest only in
products they could understand. As a result, their clients are almost
the only people in Iceland with savings intact. This is the full
interview part of which was played on Women’s Hour in November. Here is the Scotsman column that made me decide to head north and see for myself how Iceland was responding to economic meltdown and here is the column that followed this visit.

This recording starts with angry punters at a demonstration outside the Icelandic parliament. Then I met up with
Gudni Johannesson who is a historian at Reykjavik University, Eygló
Svala Arnarsdóttir, a writer with Iceland Review and Alda Sigmundsdottir, the woman behind the cult website www.icelandweatherreport.com. And here are some photos as well.

As part of this Snow Queen end of year extra I recorded this half hour programme from Skalanes in East Iceland in
June. This is where activists opposed hydro electric dams and lost –
but realized the enormous dam-building drill could also force a tunnel
through the mountains and connect their isolated communities. In other
words, inspiring conservationists and very quick thinkers! For some
context before you listen check out Scotsman Column
I emailed over from Skalanes.